Discuss: The Big Green Lie

A very nice article! I personally feel that it is not possible for corporations or governments to do anything useful; for reasons.

1. All businesses need to make money and money is always made by exploiting natural resources.

2. Politicians need to stay in power and they cannot do that without towing the line of large corporations.

The only way for the world to get better is for people like us, individuals who care, to try and opt out of the system (as much as we can), reduce consumption and move closer to Nature.

Gandhi used to ridicule planners as “dreaming of systems so perfect that no one in it needs to be perfect”. This is precisely what we are trying to do.

The only economy that can be green and still be sustainable is a local economy. Movement of goods and people are confined to 100 miles maximum. But a local economy strikes at the very foundation of these global brands. So any green initiative by global businesses is likely to fail!

Just my 2c of nonsense

Interesting comments so far. All I can add is a quote from Sigurd Olson:

“There can be no real, lasting land ethic without love.”

Growth? Growth!
I’m sick of growth!
Our growth economy sucks!
Our Mother’s Milk relentlessly
And shits it out the other end
Of mostly empty pickup trucks
Vans and sedans as fast as it can
With no alternative in sight
But when our Mother’s breast runs dry . . .
Day will be day . . . . .
And night shall once again be night

Petroleum is about to peak
And natural gas soon after in turn
At the rate its being consumed today
My grandkids will see the last of it burn
And then what? . . .
(From EcoEpic & other poems

Auden; Thanks for great story. Indeed, confronting climate change is an overwhelming challenge if we attempt it as “each doing our part.” However, reducing the US carbon emissions far below our 1990 levels is quite possible. But it will take brave leadership, national commitment and alot of capital. To see a well-researched blueprint for how it could be done, see: http://www.globalwarmingsolution.org and read their report “Rosie Revisited” which clearly explains how we can reduce our CO2 emissions 80% below 1990 levels in only 15 years, using existing technologies, and not increasing nuclear, hydro, or expanding acreage of biofuels cultivation. How? It will cost $5 trillion to put in the photovoltaic, solar thermal, wind, geothermal, and biomass systems, but many jobs will be created. Too much? The last estimate is we will spend $2+ trillion on Iraq before it’s over. Read the thorough report online. Cheers.

Auden,

Great article.  Honesty is indeed necessary in this context as well as in the political sphere where it is a true rarity anymore.  I agree with some of the other commenters that corporate America is not too keen on making the necessary changes.  It is up to ordinary people to do extraordinary things in order to save this planet for our children.  In the mean time, given the relative cheapness of energy, I will keep pulling for oil prices to continue their precipitous rise.  Back to politics, I disagree with the commenter who advocated voting for Ralph Nader.  That would most likely help John McCain’s run for the presidency.  Barack Obama is our best hope this time around.  He needs our support.

I want to build on Balaji’s many good thoughts.  I believe that people like us, individuals who care, must opt into a new system by shifting balances one-by-one (no particular order, although having reliable access to water and nourishment is quite nice).  Each must reduce reach while offering steadily more to neighboring beings of all kinds, according to vision, talent and need.  Each must learn to prefer what others offer the community over what traditions or megaproducers hand down.  It’s evident our future cannot be made of those “gifts”!  We’ll converge on sustainability as we finally devise a new interdependence of whole places and whole people.  As such we won’t come close to feeling diminished and bored.

Very honest article! I believe that in order to make the drastic cuts in CO2 emissions required to preserve any quality of life on this planet, it is imperative that we as ‘Americans’ learn that we will sink or swim globally.  We need to make careful choices about the companies we support via our purchases and/or investments, choosing those that protect/restore the environment and promote social equity. Obviously profit is necessary to keep companies going, but GREED is another subject altogether.  Being willing to sacrifice a few cents of earnings per share (and restoring executive compensation to a reasonable vs obscene level while we’re at it), really would make it a better and healthier world for ALL.

Banality all is Banality in the remarks being made here as no action to stop global warming has been stated by other commentors. The only way that global warming can be slowed is by reducing the overload of GHGs, mainly carbon dioxide, on the globe as I have stated in comments 17and 23 here.
Blaming the companies and talking about green lies go nowhere.  Start writing or e-mailing your Congresspersons about what I have outlined as a process to reduce the actual amount of carbon dioxide circulating on the globe.  Dr. J. Singmaster